1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope and an endoscope apparatus and, more particularly, to an endoscope and an endoscope apparatus capable of stably driving an illumination fiber.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional scanning endoscope apparatus causes a distal end of an illumination fiber which guides light from a light source to perform scanning, receives return light from a subject with an optical fiber bundle which is arranged around the illumination fiber, converts chronologically detected light intensity signals into images.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-212519 discloses a scanning endoscope apparatus in which an illumination fiber is threaded through a piezoelectric element having a cylindrical shape, and the illumination fiber is resonated by two-dimensionally distorting the piezoelectric element to perform scanning with light.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-513949 discloses a scanning endoscope apparatus in which a space between a piezoelectric element and a fiber for illumination is filled with an adhesive material, such as a bead, to fix together and integrate the piezoelectric element and the fiber for illumination.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-4929 proposes an endoscope apparatus which senses temperature of a distal end portion of an insertion portion and performs feedback scanning and algorithm correction.